


Something Beautiful

by deathishauntedbyhumans



Series: SF Discord Challenges [3]
Category: Sally Face (Video Games)
Genre: Bullying, Character Analysis, Experimental Style, Multi, Non-Linear Narrative, Polyamory, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-11-02 12:21:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20744354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathishauntedbyhumans/pseuds/deathishauntedbyhumans
Summary: Sometimes people are bullies and sometimes the stars are comforting and sometimes people are comforting too.





	Something Beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been at the Ren Faire all day and then I came home and wanted to write. I remembered that I still needed to do the prompt for September for the SF Discord, so... I wrote. Does it make sense? Guess you’ll find out. 
> 
> Title/lyrics come from _Yellow_ by Coldplay. Prompt for this piece was “Stars.”

_ Look at the stars _

_ Look how they shine for you _

_ And everything that you do _

* * *

“You’re so weird, Sally Face.” The little red-haired girl from the other second-grade class at his school sticks her tongue out at him from across the playground, her hair flying out behind her as she slides down the slide after shrieking at him. Sal looks away from her and doesn’t reply. 

“You’re going to hell,” Travis sneers. 

Larry tenses at his side, so Sal automatically reaches for his hand and grabs it before he can curl it into a fist. With his own gaze firmly fixed in front of them, Sal pulls until Larry follows him, past Travis, past a few other scattered classmates, into the cafeteria. 

They hold hands all through lunch. Even when they have to let go to open a bag or carry a tray, their palms find each other again beneath the table, pressing inconspicuously together in a quiet, sweaty mesh. 

Darkness is comforting. It should be scary, Sal thinks to himself one night while he lies outside on the grass in front of Addison Apartments. He should be scared of the dark, of the things that lurked inside of it. 

He isn’t. 

Bologna and cheese sandwiches with the crusts cut off, sliced neatly into triangles. Sal knows his dad is trying to connect with him, so he smiles and eats it all, even though he doesn’t really like the taste. 

“Amelia from Mrs. Wilson’s class called me weird again,” he says when he’s about halfway through. The silence in the room feels deafening. 

Sal looks up just in time to see his father’s face curl into something he doesn’t yet know how to label as  _ pity.  _ “Do I need to have a conversation with your teacher?”

“No, it’s fine. I’m used to it,” Sal says. He goes back to his sandwich and doesn’t see the way his father’s face crumples. 

He and Ash sit across from each other in the coffee shop she insisted he try. Sal doesn’t drink much coffee, but he’s got a sugar-and-cream-laden styrofoam cup spewing steam on the table in front of him. 

It’s so early that the sun hasn’t even risen yet. Ash hasn’t said a word since she’d arrived. 

“Thanks for coming,” Sal finally says. They both ignore the way his voice cracks. 

“You don’t have to thank me, Sally, you know that.” Ash’s features change like the tide, flowing fluidly from concern to something like  _ love  _ and then back again. “I care about you.”

Sal swallows a sip of coffee. It tastes more like bitter marshmallow fluff than anything else. “Thanks anyways,” he reiterates. His voice is raw. 

He looks out the window. A lone star twinkles back at him, a brilliant light somehow not yet swallowed by the grey murkiness of dawn. 

“He shouldn’t be allowed to say shit like that to you,” Larry argues, his fingers tense against Sal’s. 

Sal shakes his head. “It doesn’t hurt me,” he replies evenly. “Getting him back will only give him more of a reason to keep it up.”

“But—“

“Larry Face, he’s a bully,” Sal interrupts. “It’s not the first time I’ve dealt with someone like him. It’s easier if I ignore it. I promise, it’ll be okay.”

Larry doesn’t look convinced, but he lets the subject drop. 

Darkness doesn’t pass judgement. It’s calm, and it’s quiet, and it doesn’t say anything to anyone when it should mind its own business. It just  _ is.  _

Sal stares up at the stars and wonders what it's like to be like them. They stare back at him and wonder nothing at all.

Amelia is in his fourth grade class. She throws little pieces of her erasers at the back of Sal’s head. Sometimes, they get caught in his hair. 

The one time he turns around, their teacher puts him outside for disturbing the class. 

He doesn’t turn around again. 

“So…?”

Sal finally looks back across the table. “I just… I’ve been having nightmares,” he tells her.  _ I need you,  _ he doesn’t tell her.

Understanding blooms, soft and warm and as bright as the moon. Ash reaches across the table and squeezes his hand. 

Sal doesn’t let her let go. 

“I’m here,” she tells him. She doesn’t seem to mind. “I’m right here.”

She shines like a star, and Sal believes her. 

The darkness above him is an inky black quilt, sewn from only the finest of silks. It’s a sea of dark water from which only the bravest of sailors ever return. 

Sal picks out the Summer Triangle easily from the tangled black web around it. The constellation reminds him of  _ home,  _ even if he technically has a new home now. 

The stars are a constant, even if he’d normally seen them in the summer back in his hometown. They reassure him without words that the world is still turning. 

They reassure him that the dark isn’t as scary as it seems. 

“What’s that in your hair?” Sal’s dad asks when he picks him up from school. 

Sal automatically pushes the tiny piece of the pink eraser from his blue locks before his father can touch him. “We did an art project today,” he lies easily before he can even decide whether or not to tell the truth. 

He doesn’t tell his dad about Amelia and her friends anymore. It’s easier to pretend it doesn’t matter that way. 

“Oh. That’s nice,” his dad says, like he’s only half-listening. “Come on. Let’s get home before it starts to rain.”

When Sal looks up at the dark storm clouds above their heads, he pretends for a second that he can see tiny bright dots scattered in among them.

It’s midnight, and Sal only stopped shivering fifteen minutes prior when Larry brought a thick quilt from his apartment to drape over them. 

“You don’t have to stay out here with me,” Sal protests weakly, snuggled in comfortably between Larry and Ash beneath the blanket. Above them, the cloudless night bears only the suggestion of light; stars twinkle aimlessly down on them as Larry and Ash both take Sal’s protestation as a sign to latch on further. 

“No, we don’t,” Ash agrees, smushing her cold nose against Sal’s warm neck. 

“But we’re going to,” Larry adds, looping his arm around Sal’s waist with a considerable amount of wiggling. 

“We  _ liiiiiike  _ you,” Ash mumbles. When Sal shivers this time, it has less to do with the chill of the night air and more to do with the breath bumping against his skin. 

“Weird,” Sal mumbles back. It’s an evil intrusive thought that slips past his lips because he’s exhausted, and both Larry and Ash respond to it immediately. Ash nibbles reproachfully at his earlobe; Larry lightly pinches the skin on his hip. “Ow! Okay, okay. Point taken. Not weird. Very nice.” He pauses, gaze roaming across the wide expanse of sky above them. “I love you guys, too,” he adds, with a much softer quality to his voice. 

Without meaning for it to happen, Sal finds his eyes drawn to the Summer Triangle. It’s habit, he thinks vaguely, or something like it. The darkness seems a little less dark around it, like the inky pool of the sky clears itself to make room for the bright light of the three little stars inside of it. 

_ Maybe that’s just what’s right _ is Sal’s next thought. Three stars in the sky, three people on the grass… It’s just what’s right. 

After all, Sal has never been afraid of the dark. 

**Author's Note:**

> I will die on this polyam hill you just try and stop me. 
> 
> Kudos/comments are love! Come scream at me on tumblr @deathishauntedbyhumans.


End file.
